You are currently viewing the printable version of this article, to return to the normal page, please click here.

Disney no longer part of PGA Tour

By ASSOCIATED PRESS -
Associated Press -
Monday, December 10, 2012

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLA. (AP) - The PGA Tour's event in Mexico will anchor a six-tournament schedule next fall that will not include Disney for the first time in more than 40 years.

The tour next year goes to a wraparound season and will offer FedEx Cup points for the six tournaments that will kick off the 2013-14 season. That season will start with the Frys.com Open at CordeValle Golf Club in northern California on Oct. 10-13 and conclude with the OHL Classic at Mayakoba in Mexico on Nov. 14-17.

After about a two-month break, the 2013-14 schedule will resume at Kapalua with the Tournamsent of Champions.

Disney has been part of the PGA Tour landscape since Jack Nicklaus won the inaugural event in 1971. That it was dropped from the new schedule was not a surprise. Disney lost its title sponsor when the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals did not renew, and Disney did not aggressively pursue a replacement.

"We've had a wonderful 40-year relationship with the tour," Disney tournament spokesman Tony Morreale said Monday.

Mexico had been played opposite the Match Play Championship in February. It now moves to the end of the calendar year, hopeful of drawing a stronger field.

The fall portion of the schedule includes two tournaments in Asia. After the new season starts in California with the Frys.com Open, it goes to Las Vegas the following week and then heads across the Pacific to the CIMB Classic in Malaysia and the HSBC Champions, a World Golf Championship event in Shanghai. For the first time, both Asia events will count as official tournaments.

Without taking a week off, the tour returns to America for the McGladrey Classic at Sea Island, hosted by Davis Love III, on Nov. 7-10, followed by the Mexico tournament.

All tournaments will be broadcast by Golf Channel. The amount of prize money for each tournament was not announced.